When the fall did come, the Fianna Fáil-led government, headed by Ahern’s chosen successor Brian Cowen, simply could not grasp what was happening. Its entire reaction was based on incomprehension. It was cognitively impaired. Since the 1960s, Fianna Fáil had linked itself, financially and morally, to the property developers who epitomized the native resurgence. This co-dependency had embraced the bankers who funded those developers, especially Fitzpatrick’s brash, upstart Anglo Irish Bank. It could not believe that these gods were failing. It chose instead, with dreadful consequences for the
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